


Unexpected at Tesco

by donttouchtheneednoggle



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Aroace Leon (Merlin), Based on a Tumblr Post, Gen, Genderqueer Merlin (Merlin), Immortal Leon (Merlin), Immortal Merlin (Merlin), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Modern Era, Platonic Cuddling, Some angst, as a treat, hehe adhd merlin go brrr, merlin has excellent taste in movies if i do say so myself, they're allowed a little codependence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29357376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donttouchtheneednoggle/pseuds/donttouchtheneednoggle
Summary: Leon was just looking for Special K
Relationships: Leon & Merlin (Merlin)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 89
Collections: Camelove 2021





	Unexpected at Tesco

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Camelove 2021 Day 4: Cupid's Aro  
> Based on [this](https://thatgaywizardoverthere.tumblr.com/post/631191374775140352) tumblr post

Leon stood staring at the display of Special K, wondering if he should get the normal one or splash out on the one with apricots in.

He had just decided on normal and was gazing vaguely around him when something colourful caught his eye.

He paused a moment to admire the shockingly bright rainbow striped sweater a slight young man further down the aisle was wearing. It certainly wasn’t his style, especially when paired with flamboyantly ripped jeans and platform boots, but-

Wait.

He couldn’t see his face properly because he wasn’t facing him, but that curly dark hair… those cheekbones...

As if drawn by a magnet the boy turned and looked at him. Their eyes met and Leon froze to the spot.

It was him.

It was him.

The rest of the world faded to a buzz as he moved closer as if in a dream, until they were standing face to face, a few feet apart.

“Tell me I’m not losing it,” whispered Merlin. He was trembling.

Leon was shaking. He screwed his eyes tight shut for a moment, then opened them again. Merlin was still there. “If you’re not then I am.”

Box wine and a packet of dinosaur nuggets went flying through the air as Merlin launched himself at him.

“LEON!” he shrieked at the top of his voice, right in his ear as he clung to him. “LEON!”

“Merlin!“ he gasped. Tears blurred his eyes and Merlin was sobbing into his shoulder and he was pretty sure he was getting eyeliner all over his shirt and people was staring but he didn’t care as he hugged Merlin back like his life depended on it.

After a long time they drew apart and Merlin reached up to cradle his face and push a hand through his hair. He looked just how Leon remembered him from the days of Arthur’s reign, though there was something imperceptibly different; in his face, in his eyes.

“How are you here?” he choked, his eyes welling up with tears again. “Are you all back? Is Arthur-?”

“No- no, Merlin,” he said as gently as he could, still feeling dazed. “I- I never left. I’m kind of… immortal.”

He expected the warlock to look amazed, confused. He hadn’t expected him to look like he’d just stabbed him.

His stomach dropped like a stone.

………

After a dinner of wine and nuggets they sat on Merlin’s sofa watching a movie (Night at the Museum 2 (?)) for some pretence of normality, having got a bit overwhelmed with recent revelations.

Or Leon sat. Merlin half lay with his feet kicked up and his head resting against Leon’s chest. Leon had his arms wrapped round Merlin’s middle, still feeling like he was in a very surreal dream.

Merlin was here. He always had been here. He was waiting for Arthur. Who was going to come back (?!). It was all a bit much.

Merlin pressed pause. “How many years-“

Leon’s heart wrenched. “Don’t, Merlin. Don’t do that. We’re here now. We’ll lose our minds if we start thinking like that.”

Merlin snorted. “So you’ve still got yours?”

Leon winced. “Fair point.”

“You died though,” he whispered, twisting round to look at him.

Leon sighed, shame pricking at him. “I was a coward. When I realised what was happening, I- I panicked.” He frowned. “I was sixty and looked twenty seven. How oblivious was I?”

Merlin looked a bit like he was fighting a smile. “To be fair you have always looked sort of, uh- mature. We all just thought you had good genes.”

Leon glared sullenly. “Genes hadn’t been discovered then. I suppose you used magic?”

Merlin shrugged, grinning. “We still had them. And yeah, ageing spells come in handy.” His mirth faded. “So, you faked your death… did you leave?”

Leon shook his head slowly. “No… I stuck around, as much as I could, just to keep an eye on you all, make sure you were doing ok. Once I calmed down I was even going to come back properly, explain it all. I just- it never seemed like the right time. And the longer I left it the more difficult it was.”

Merlin looked at him. “Like Elyan.”

Leon sighed again. “Like Elyan,” he repeated. “To think I used to be angry at him for that.”

Merlin stroked his arm comfortingly. “You worked it out though, you and him and- Gwen.”

His voice wavered on the last word.

Leon sighed even heavier. “Gwen.” He felt suddenly sick with a guilt that had not faded in a millennium. “I left her,” he mumbled. “When Elyan died, and Arthur, I swore I would never leave her. And then-”

Merlin squeezed his eyes tight shut. ”Yeah.”

“You never told her either?”

Merlin shook his head mutely, gritting his teeth as his shoulders began to shake.

“I said I’d be with her soon. When she was dying, I promised,” he whispered. “Fifteen hundred years ago.”

Leon hugged him tight, stroking his hair, tears blurring his eyes again. “They’re all together now, Merlin, wherever they are.”

Merlin nestled against him, burying his head in his shoulder as sobs racked him. They had never been this physically close back in Camelot, but right then Leon couldn’t imagine letting go.

For a long time they sat there, until Merlin removed his face from Leon’s shirt and looked up at him. His eyes were red with crying, smudged with eyeliner and ringed with dark circles.

Leon now knew what was different about his eyes. It was nothing physical, Leon wouldn’t have seen it at all if it wasn’t the same as in his, the only indicator that he was wearier than he seemingly had any right to be.

Age.

Other than that, he still looked just like he used to in Camelot, Leon thought despairingly, like he was constantly in need of ten hours of sleep.

“So what have you been up to?” Merlin asked, sounding deliberately casual as if to make up for the minor breakdown. ”You know, the past millennium?”

Leon smiled tiredly. What indeed.

“We’re not getting into that, we’ll be here all night. Another time. You should sleep.”

Merlin scowled. “I’m not a _child_.”

You didn’t need to tell him.

“Merlin, it’s after midnight and you look exhausted,” Leon pleaded.

“ _Fine_ ,” Merlin said, rolling his eyes. “You can sleep in the spare room if you want.” 

His tone was casual but he seemed oddly tense. He looked like he was forcing himself not to cling to him again. Leon dithered, torn.

On the one hand he desperately didn’t want to be away from Merlin so soon after finding him, and Merlin seemed to be feeling the same way.

On the other, he wanted to be mindful of them becoming too dependent on each other. They couldn’t just change their lives because they’d found someone like each other, someone that they weren’t going to lose.

(Leon would manage to keep this up a week before moving in with Merlin.)

He sighed. It was very late to be setting out. “Ok. Thanks Merlin.”

Merlin beamed, immediately relaxing and looking as relieved as Leon felt.

“Awesome!” He threw his arms round him again. “Goodnight Leon.”

Leon smiled, hugging him tight and kissing the top of his head. “Goodnight, Merlin.”

………

“Chocolate chip pancakes!” Merlin announced the next day, with a giddy smile that reminded Leon alarmingly of Gwaine.

Seriously, fifteen hundred years later and that smile still had Leon waking up in a cold sweat.

The warlock seemed brighter today, Leon was glad to see. And not just physically. Though he was, somehow, even brighter physically.

He was wearing knee high socks patterned with dragons, booty shorts that read ‘enemy of the state’ on the backside, and a highlighter green crop top. Leon’s eyes hurt just looking at him.

At least Merlin didn’t seem to have taken to Gwaine’s preferred method of coping with things. Although Leon felt he himself could do with a bottle as he watched him heap eighteen spoonfuls of sugar into his coffee and then drink it through a krazy straw.

He thought mournfully of his Special K as Merlin plonked a plate of pancakes in front of him, practically saturated in golden syrup.

“You eat this every morning?”

“Yes. Well, sometimes I have waffles,” Merlin said seriously. He dropped into the seat across from him and began to eat enthusiastically. That was something, Leon supposed resignedly.

Merlin was eyeing him. “So. You going to tell me what you’ve been up to?”

“Well, I’m a lawyer,” Leon hedged.

Merlin rolled his eyes. “Of course you are. You know what I mean, _before_.”

“What about you?” Leon challenged.

Merlin dropped his eyes. “I’m a counsellor at the LGBT centre down the road.”

Leon felt a glow of pride along with the amusement. “So I guess we’re both not going there?”

Merlin grinned. “Guess not.”

Probably wise. They would be very long stories.

“So, you’re – queer then?”

Merlin beamed. “Pick a spectrum, any spectrum. I don’t really go by labels, but I’d had enough with gender’s shit within the first hundred years.”

Leon laughed. “Pronouns?” he checked.

Merlin waved a hand airily. “Oh, any. Mostly he/they, but I’ll let you know if it changes.” He paused and grinned at him. “What about you?”

Leon shrugged. “Gender’s basically the same, but I’m aroace. Always was of course.” A small smile spread across his face. “It was lovely when that one got invented.”

Merlin was looking at him with a glowing smile, their eyes shining with tears again. All of a sudden he launched himself across the table (Leon was pretty sure they had slowed down their perception of time to avoid smashing anything) and landed in his lap.

“Oof! Merlin!” he complained.

The warlock was laughing as they hugged him tightly. “I’m so glad I found you,” he whispered.

“Me too,” he murmured, carding his hand through their tangled hair.

He again felt the stabbing pain of knowing he might not have had to spend the centuries as he had, but he pushed it aside. They were here now.

He already felt so comfortable around Merlin again despite their differences; finally there was someone who would understand all he had been through.

They could take their time talking things out, and maybe he could help balance out their chaos a little. He had always been good at that.

And as for Leon?

Well, he thought, a joyous smile spreading across his face as he hugged Merlin back, life would never be dull again.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated <3
> 
> Come hang out on [tumblr](https://donttouchtheneednoggle.tumblr.com/)!


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